We had worked for a number of months researching a documentary to air on CBC television in Edmonton. Back in the early 1980s, several of us freelance broadcasters had crafted a story about what would happen in Alberta when the oil ran dry. One can imagine the volatility of such a subject given Alberta’s economic dependence on fossil fuel production, not to mention hostility in the oil patch over the National Energy Program at the time.

“Before the documentary goes to air,” a CBC producer told those of us writing the documentary, “the content has to be lawyered.”

“Lawyered? Isn’t the CBC arm’s-length from politics?” asked one of my colleagues.

“That’s exactly why it has to be vetted,” the producer said. “It’s got to be fair to both sides of the debate.” (more…)

One day last summer, I shared a walk with several of my grandsons. They wondered about an empty storefront on Toronto Street. “What did it used to be?” they asked.

“Ballinger’s store used to be there,” I told them. “You could buy clothes and shoes and all sorts of dry goods there,” I said.

“What’s dry goods?” one of them asked.

“Just about everything you’d ever want to buy that’s not food,” I said.

“You mean like on the internet?”

Well, you can imagine where the conversation went after that. (more…)